We decided it was time humans stop conforming to electronics. So we’re making electronics conform to us.

Carlos Garcia Pando's insight:

Taking advantage of recent advances in flexible electronics, researchers have devised a way to “print” devices directly onto the skin so people can wear them for an extended period while performing normal daily activities. Such systems could be used to track health and monitor healing near the skin’s surface, as in the case of surgical wounds

The nerve fibres use the silk fibres to grow along in order to reconnect with the other end of the nerve. The silk provides the cells with good adhesion, supports cell movement and encourages cell division.

Carlos Garcia Pando's insight:

Probably due to their complexity, several hundred meters of silk are needed to bridge a 6-cm-long nerve injury.

We report a case of chronic traumatic paraplegia in which epidural electrical stimulation (EES) of the lumbosacral spinal cord enabled volitional control of task-specific muscle activity, volitional control of rhythmic muscle activity to produce steplike movements while side-lying, independent standing, and while in a vertical position with body weight partially supported, voluntary control of steplike movements and rhythmic muscle activity.

CelGro allows for suture-less reconnection of the damaged nerve while guiding nerve regeneration and accelerating the healing process.

Carlos Garcia Pando's insight:

CelGro is a biological medical device used in a variety of orthopaedic and general reconstructive surgical applications. Orthocell is undertaking a wide range of clinical studies using CelGro to augment tendon, nerve and cartilage repair as well as to guide and promote bone regeneration.

Researchers have engineered living bone tissue to repair bone loss in the jaw, a structure that is typically difficult to restore. They grafted customized implants into pig jaws that resulted in integration and function of the engineered graft into the recipient’s own tissue.

RetroSense Therapeutics product development for gene therapies for eye diseases.

Carlos Garcia Pando's insight:

If all goes according to plan, sometime next month a surgeon in Texas will inject viruses laden with DNA from light-sensitive algae into the eye of a legally blind person in a bet that it could let the patient see again, if only in blurry black-and-white.

Using the well-established stent technology, they deliver a number of electrodes close to the brain. The electrodes are connected to a computer in the chest (outside the body), and signals are translated into orders to command an exoskeleton.

I would prefer an external system, or at least a less intrusive one. But there they go.

The global fracture repair (trauma) market is more than $5 billion and growing greater than 10 percent annually. An aging, active population suffering from osteoporosis contributes to the growing issue of fragility fractures, those occurring as a result of a fall from standing height. Fragility fractures are common in women over 50 years of age and about half will suffer from one in their lifetime. In men over 50, the occurrence of fragility fractures is one in five. In more dramatic terms, an osteoporotic fragility fracture is estimated to occur every three seconds

The IRIS is a complete, semi-rigid, and the only adjustable, retrievable and complete transcatheter annuloplasty ring system. The IRIS reduces the valve annulus diameter enabling return of leaflet coaptation and reduction of regurgitation.

In a recent clinical report, return of the tendon stretch reflex was demonstrated after spinal cord surgery in a case of total traumatic brachial plexus avulsion injury. Peripheral nerve grafts had been implanted into the spinal cord to reconnect to the peripheral nerves for motor as well as sensory function.

Carlos Garcia Pando's insight:

Thomas Carlsted at King's College London recently helped to develop a new surgical technique to reconnect the sensory root. It involves cutting the original sensory nerve cells out of the root and implanting the remaining root directly into a deeper structure in the spinal cord.

Large skeletal defects caused by trauma, congenital malformations, and post-oncologic resections of the calvarium present major challenges to the reconstructive surgeon.

Carlos Garcia Pando's insight:

Interestingly, the regenerated bone was better quality, the bone growth was contained to the area defined by the scaffolding, the area healed much more quickly, and the new and old bone were continuous with no scar tissue. The scaffold is reabsorbed

In the UMC Utrecht a brain implant has been placed in a patient enabling her to operate a speech computer with her mind. The researchers and the patient worked intensively to get the settings right. She can now communicate at home with her family and caregivers via the implant. That a patient can use this technique at home is unique in the world. This research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

To make a good framework for filling in missing bone, mix at least 30 percent pulverized natural bone with some special man-made plastic and create the needed shape with a 3-D printer. That’s the recipe for success reported by researchers at The Johns Hopkins University in a paper published April 18 online in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering .

Carlos Garcia Pando's insight:

Now they need to improve the properties and the topology of the scafolds to improve the mechanical behaviour of the products. sintermedical can help in this

Researchers have developed a method of measuring blood glucose using far infrared light, which is both harmless and non-invasive.

Carlos Garcia Pando's insight:

As opposite to near infrared only weakly absorbed by glucose, but also by water, protein and hemoglobin, far infrared light with wavelengths of around 10 micron is strongly absorbed by glucose, making it possible, in theory, for patients to get more sensitive and accurate measurements.

However, the problem faced by researchers, is that far-infrared light penetrates only a few microns from the skin's surface, which makes the detection of blood glucose difficult.

Prof. Matsuura's team has thus developed a new measurement technique that consists of a small prism attached to the ends of flexible hollow-optical fibers to radiate far infrared light. By using this method, it is possible to irradiate the oral mucosa of inner lips that, unlike skin, have no thick horny layer.

"Establishing this Germany-based subsidiary will allow us to enhance our customer service with training, education, and field service support by being in closer proximity to our valued customers," said Hausherr. "The Freiburg headquarters will also position Ekso to build strategic partnerships in the area."

The researchers optimized the reaction and developed an “e-scaffold,” a sort of electronic Band-Aid made out of conductive carbon fabric. By running electrical current through the fabric, they produced a low and constant concentration of hydrogen peroxide to kill the bugs.

Carlos Garcia Pando's insight:

Will these e-Band-Aids be wi-fi enabled to tell the doctor the healing process is going well?

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